Accu-Cull.. These aint your daddy's balls

I have only been tournament fishing for 3 years now, but during that time there has been nothing that has annoyed me more then messing around with an inferior culling system..Personally I have put 3 systems to the test and one system  I actually returned to the store prior to them ever even hitting the boat. A poor culling system can cost you time, money and your fingers.. but after 3 years of searching I can finally say.. the search is over

This past weekend I picked up the tangle free Accu-Cull tag system, and simple put this thing is awesome. The Accu-Cull tag system can be purchased 2 ways, either with lip piercing metal clamps or with the more fish friendly plastic clamps, as you can see from the above pics, I went with the non-piercing plastic clamps . Both versions are equipped with a tangle free surgical tubing that floats in the live-well (or when you drop them overboard). The kit itself contains 7 tags each with a different color tubing, the tubing colors are nice and bright and match up to the Accu-Cull weight system (that I didn't purchase). A nice perk to this kit is that it also comes equipped with a mounting bracket to keep them all together when stored int he live-well. (a sticky base not something you need to actually screw on)

Obviously there is a lot to like about this set, the clips themselves are very durable and hold tight to the fishes lip.. believe  me there is nothing worse then heading to the live-well to make a quick cull only to see tags floating but no longer attached to fish.. The long surgical tubes have some stretch and bounce to them, so when you grab hold and the fish takes off there is less possibility of the clip being ripped off.. it's like a bungee cord. Perk #3 is that although the Accu-cull system is technically a 3-pc set you can buy these separately (like I did)..

but if you are in the market for a new scale and complete culling system you can buy the additional pieces that include a digital scale and a color codes weigh recording system.. these can both be purchased separately and both come with the ability to be mounted inside your boats live-well.. right where you always need 'em, but rarely find them.

Tip: I use the Rapala Tournament touch screen scale, it allows me to store up to 8 weights on the scale for ease of culling.  The saved weights are numbered, and not colour co-ordinated like the Accu-Cull system, so to make these two system work flawlessly I made a slight modification to the tags

First, Find yourself a water resistant black marker. Grab 5 tags of your choice (preferably not the black one) and line them up. On both sides of each clamp write a number 1,2,3,4 or 5. Then on the surgical tubing, make a number of lines or dots representing the same number that is written on the clamp (see above pic). Now no matter whether your are recording the weights by hand or using a digital scale (here is one I use) you now have the ability to use an easy number system instead of trying to remember what color comes first. (obviously if you bought the accu-cull complete kit this tip can be ignored). I leave the last 2 tags un-numbered, this way if I loose or damage a tag I can then replace it with one of the remaining tags